OUTSIDE OF SOCIETY - THAT'S WHERE I WANT TO BE

October 7th, 2007

I get home from Ellerslie on Wednesday, and lo and behold Damien has acquired season 1 of Lost from a friend at work. After months of him cringing every Thursday when all of his coworkers would gather outside of his cube to discuss the previous night's episode and HATING it, the hot-guy-at-work finally convinced him to take home season 1 and judge for himself. So he did. He watched the first season over 2 days, then brought home the 2nd. I did a bit of research on the show before submitting myself, and found out that the show was co-created and produced by J. J. Abrams, who also did Alias, which is a damned impressive show. Plus, I like a lot of the castmembers. So I started watching as well.

UH... MAH... GAH...

I was incredibly surprised at how well done it is, frankly. These characters are considerably more emotional and deep than I imagined they would be. The backstory flashbacks on all the characters reveal their deeply rooted flaws and frailties, and you see how damaged they really are and what drives a lot of their choices. Several of them that I had already made my mind up about as being unlikeable end up with my respect and sympathies, not unlike the character Johnny Depp plays in Blow. Desperate people can easily be compelled to do desperate things. I know a lot about that, and can empathize. I can even see some of my friends in these characters as well as myself, which hit very close to home.

I understand the lengths you will go to for your children and how losing something precious can bring you to commit acts of vengeance that you never imagined possible of the most soulless of mercenaries, let alone yourself. I understand how substances can enslave you body and soul and enable you to legitimize the gamble of everything most precious to you in the world for another fix. I understand being so hurt by someone else's fuck-ups that you can barely breathe without it hurting and the pain written all over you reduces anyone nearby to desperately want to console you and knowing that they are powerless to. That kind of pain is palpable.

Two of the characters from my beloved Oz are in this - Harold Perrineau, (who played Agustus Hill on Oz and Michael on Lost) and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who played Simon Adebisi on Oz and Mr. Eko on Lost) - as well as a guy called Sayid (although the one on Oz spelled his name Said and was played by Eammon Walker) but still, very interesting. Then while watching a marathon of season 2 there were two things that happened that cinched the deal for me. First, Bruce Davidson made a geust appearance. Then later on they used my favorite Otis Redding song (These Arms Of Mine) in an episode.

I really dig this show and cannot wait for season 3 to come out on DVD as I've never seen any of those episodes either.